Monday, October 26, 2009

From VampChix founder, Michele Hauf: Hey, everyone! Thanks to Michelle for inviting us to chat with the Bellas today. Most of you know I write vampire romances. And if it doesn’t have a vamp hero or heroine in lead roles, there’s a vampire lurking in there somewhere. I love the bitey guys. But it gives me a giggle to think how the vampires of today have been sanitized over the decades.

Remember when vampires used to scare the crap out of us? Okay, some still do. Go, horror movies! "Let The Right One In," anyone? But romance has pushed aside the ugly, fanged smirks, the long clawed fingers, the stench of the grave, and the utter, rip-out-their-throats blood-thirstiness of vampires and replaced it with mannered bloodsuckers who prefer to drink from plastic bags filled with donor blood.

Dracula would have never dreamed of such a thing! But maybe he did. Do you think he ever tired of pulling the sneery monster face and scaring his victims to shrieking fits? Gotta be a lot easier to suck on the neck of a willing female than one who is struggling and screaming.

It’s something to think about. The range of vampires in fiction and movies nowadays is awesome. We’ve got horror, mystery, fantasy, romance, erotic, young adult, and manga, just to name a few. Something for everyone.

And that leads me to tell you about a new blog I started a few months ago. At VampChix, we love vampires, and we aim to attract fans of all sorts of the bloodsuckers. We feature author interviews, guest bloggers, movie and book reviews, mythology and all the vamp news we can find.

And if that’s not enough, we formed Bite Club. I’m going to turn over this cyber-space to Anna Dougherty, who is head mistress of Bite Club, to explain further…

Who needs Oprah when we have Bite Club! We at VampChix love our vampires, and we also love to read, so we decided to start a monthly book club. First rule of Bite Club: Tell everyone about Bite Club. Second rule of Bite Club: Don't bleed on the freakin’ carpet!

Here's how the club works: Each month we will feature a new vampire romance title and an author spotlight. Everyone gets a few weeks to read the book and then we meet to discuss our favorite characters, plot lines, settings, hot scenes, world building,etc. The blog will be open all month long for those who want to chat books, but spoilers will not be permitted until discussion day unless clearly marked. If you have a scene that jumps out and really grabs you by the throat, let's talk about it, but for those who choose to remain in the dark, spoilers can be skipped. Who knows, maybe the author will drop in to talk too!

Our first featured selection for Bite Club is the "Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2," and our first chat begins Oct 30th and runs through Nov 1st. Our next book club choice is "Dark Stranger," by Susan Sizemore. Stop by Bite Club at vampchixreadbooks.blogspot.com and let's talk vampire books!!

Hey! All week VampChix is holding a VampBash and we’re giving away tons of prizes, holding a scavenger hunt, and have guest bloggers every day. Need some Vampire wine? We’ve got an exclusive coupon code to save at Vampire.com.

What are some of your fave dark n' deadly vamps from days gone by? What vamp reads would you love to dig into with Bite Club?

14 comments:

Michele - I like your books, Lori Handeland, and more paranormal authors than I can count. J.R. Ward, Kresley Cole, for a start. I don't limit my reading to vamps, though - I like shifters, changers and werewolves, too.

Hi Michele, I also love your books along with other gifted authors in the paranormal genre, which is growing in my favor more and more.But scary favorite vamps and the like I don't like to be scared that much. SorryDeb

I'm not much into scary vamps, myself, Debbie. I like them dark, broody and romancey. :-) Just watched bits of VanHelsing last night. I love Richard Roxbourgh's portrayal of Dracula in that show! Am I the only one? I think so, because I've got a poll set up at VampChix about who your favorite Dracula is and he's only got one vote so far (and that's from moi!).

When I was in high school Hollywood remade Dracula with Frank Langella (he used to be verra verra sexy -- try Not to think: Frost/Nixon) anyhow it was the first time I equated vampires with sex. I couldn't understand how I could be soooo attracted to the "bad guy" -- now, Of course, I GET it.

I love so many vampires and I love how I can accept almost all mythologies surrounding them.

I have yet to see Langella's Dracula, because 'yeah' I would be thinking Frost/Nixon. Now Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon is so hawt. He does werewolf well. I'm not into the whole 'Twilight' series, but may have to break down to see New Moon just because Sheen plays a vampire in it. Sigh...